


Home Videos

by mk_tortie



Category: 10 Things I Hate About You (movie) - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-08
Updated: 2006-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-25 06:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1637660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mk_tortie/pseuds/mk_tortie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks to Jane Elliot for checking this over for me, she did a fantastic job!</p><p>Written for Sascha</p>
    </blockquote>





	Home Videos

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Jane Elliot for checking this over for me, she did a fantastic job!
> 
> Written for Sascha

 

 

"Mommy, Mommy! The doorbell's ringing, Mommy!"

The camera zooms in on five-year old Bianca, chubby cheeked with a mop of unruly  
blond hair. She runs to the door but doesn't open it. Behind the camera, a woman  
laughs. "Sweetie, are you going to open it, then?"

"Wait! Wait!" And there's Kat, slipping on the wooden floor in fluffy socks. "It's  
carol singers! I saw them from upstairs!"

Bianca struggles with the catch, and the door swings open.

 _'We wish you a merry Christmas_  
We wish you a merry Christmas  
We wish you a merry Christmas  
And a happy New Year...'

~

Kat pulls the tape from the machine and selects another from the stack. It's turning  
into a bit of a ritual, watching the tapes her mother made. They were buried at the  
back of a drawer, when she found them back in 9th grade. She needed them that  
Christmas, too, she thinks ruefully. And the one after. And after that, she just carried  
on watching them, tape after tape, every Christmas Eve.

Bianca waltzes into the hallway, shaking the snow out of her hair. Hearing the TV,  
she wanders into the living room. "Watcha' watching?" she asks chirpily, slumping  
onto the couch. "Mom's tapes? You know she's not actually _in_ any of them?"

Kat is still crouched in front of the VCR. "Bianca, I'm not _blind._ " She  
pushes the new tape into the slot, and presses play. "Nobody's making you watch  
them with me," she adds pointedly.

Bianca shrugs. "Sheesh, and there was me thinking Patrick had tamed you." Kat  
glares at her, but Bianca goes on before she can say anything. "Anyway, I like seeing  
us when we were kids." She smiles sweetly at her sister, who rolls her eyes and takes  
a seat next to her on the couch.

~

Bianca can't be more than a year old, diaper visible under her pants as she grips the  
carpet, crawling up the stairs. A chunk comes out and she holds it up. "Fluh!" she  
squeaks, turning to show it to her mother, grinning with delight at her discovery.

A chuckle from behind the camera. "Don't pull up all of Mommy's carpet, honey!"

Behind them, the door opens, and Kat's voice echoes in the hallway.

"Mommy, I busted up my knee!" The camera swings round, wobbling as it is set  
down on the wooden floor. "But now I got a Band-Aid with _dinosaurs_ on it!"

Their father's feet pass in front of the camera, and he picks it up. "Where's my  
favourite younger daughter, then?" Walter's voice is louder than his wife's, and he is  
closer to the camera as he swings it round, back to Bianca. But in the background,  
you can still hear their mother: "Let me kiss it better for you, sweetie-Kat." And Kat:  
"I love you, Mommy."

~

Kat hugs her knees, and doesn't get up to change the tape. Bianca looks sideways at  
her. Kat ignores her. The phone rings and breaks the silence, and with it the mood.

Bianca grabs it. "Hello?" She looks disappointed at the answer. "It's for you."

Kat's face lights up. Talking to Patrick, spending the break in Australia with his  
family, took precedence over videotapes. Just.

An hour later, she's back. Bianca has moved to the kitchen, but she peers around the  
door when she hears the TV sounds return. "You're _still_ watching them?"

Despite her disparaging tone, Bianca flops down on the couch. Kat shrugs and digs  
around for the remote.

~

Kat has on bunny ears and furry gloves with white pads, while Bianca tries to draw a  
black circle on the end of her nose with an eyeliner pencil. Tongue stuck out, she  
can't keep it straight, and the pencil slips.

"Mom!" she wails. "My nose is wonky!"

"It sure is," says Kat, poking out her tongue at her little sister. "But it's always been  
like that!" She giggles and Bianca tries to hit her, but Kat ducks out the way.

"Girls, don't fight." The soft female voice from behind the camera is patient and  
calm. "Walter? Can you come hold this a sec while I help the girls with their  
costumes?"

Their father looks relaxed, with his top button undone and corduroy slacks. "You  
think I can't do a little face-painting? Give me the pencil, precious!" This to Bianca,  
who is now trying to draw lines on Kat's arm.

"Daddy, do you like my tail? Do you like my ears? I made them myself!" Kat twirls  
around, grinning now she has escaped from Bianca and the eyeliner.

"Very pretty, honey," her father replies, standing back to admire his handiwork on his  
younger daughter's face. "And you're a very cute kitty-cat, too, Bianca," he adds  
hurriedly, seeing her lips tighten into a pout. She stands on tiptoes to peer into the  
hallway mirror and grins at herself.

"Thank you Daddy!" Then, to Kat: "How come you're an Easter bunny at  
Halloween? That's just _silly._ "

Kat sticks her nose in the air. "Why should the Easter bunny only get to come out at  
Easter? Then he has to give away candy, and at Halloween he can get it all back  
again!"

Their father steps between them to prevent any more bickering. "Now, come on girls,  
you don't want to be too late and miss out on all the candy! Out the door with you!  
Wave to your Mom!"

Cat and bunny scamper out onto the porch, and Walter turns to the camera. He  
disappears from view as he kisses his wife. "See you later, honey," he murmurs, and  
the screen goes black.

~

It's long past midnight, nearly dawn, and Kat is in bed, still awake. The tapes are  
stacked away downstairs, and the rest of the world is asleep, but she can't help but lie  
there and think. All those tapes, and her Mom not in the picture in a single one. Her  
memories are the same, stills of scenes like tableaux, and Kat feels like an outsider in  
those memories anyway. It's funny, really, she muses, that all her Mom does is  
narrate in those videos. Because the whole time, there's the three of them onscreen,  
the family, and Mom watching, but never physically involved.

Maybe, she thinks, it's still like that now. Kat's not religious, but she wonders  
sometimes, if one day, she'll get to watch all the tapes from now, with her Mom's soft  
voice trying to send advice through the barriers between the living and the dead.

 


End file.
